Championship Drag Racing

Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals
Sonoma, Calif.
(July 25-27)

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Driver Profile

Chris Rivas G2 Drag Specialties S&S Buell V-Twin

Sonoma, pre-race:  Chris Rivas has made the three-hour drive to Infineon Raceway since 2005 with the same thought – winning the FRAM Autolite Nationals.  And, for the first time, Rivas believes he has the potential to make it to the Pro Stock Motorcycle winner’s circle Sunday in NHRA’s FRAM Autolite Nationals.

It’s no coincidence Rivas’ pre-race confidence is fed by the fact this is his first season riding the G2 Motorsports Drag Specialties S&S Cycle V-Twin Pro Stock Motorcycle and that he’s already earned his first POWERade Series win and one runner-up in the last four races.

“This is my best season ever participating in NHRA and it’s kind of what we expected of this team,” said Rivas, of Fresno, Calif.  “I think it’s the best team. We struggled in the first part of the season, just with the tune-up calls. It really didn’t have anything to do with the team dynamics.  I was already familiar with everybody on the G2 team.  They were the ones who taught me how to ride the bike in the beginning of my career. 

“We just could not find the right setup to make the motors perform the way we knew they could. And recently we’ve changed our tune-up philosophy and things kind of turned around for us.  I’ve always known I could be a contender if I just had a bike under me that would hang in there for four rounds on Sunday,” he said.

Rivas credits G2 co-owner George Smith (George Bryce is the other co-owner) and chief mechanic Ken Johnson with providing the essentials to win races and championships.

“Riders really give a lot of credit to our crews,” he said.  “What I was missing before was Ken Johnson, who we call our chief mechanic. He’s so meticulous at everything he does on the bike.  He just doesn’t miss a thing. The bike is just phenomenal because of Ken Johnson and what he does.

“George Smith is our crew chief and he makes all the tuning calls.  He’s a genius in my opinion.  He’s an engineer at heart and he’s very meticulous on making the tune-up calls.  When something doesn’t work, he finds out why.  He’s very flexible with the way he does the tune-ups.”

Rivas showed championship potential at Chicago, June 8, when he qualified No. 1 and recorded his first NHRA victory.  And then he repeated as No. 1 qualifier and extended his round-win streak to seven before finishing second at Englishtown, N.J.  He is fourth points with 512 and well on the way to qualifying for a trip to the Countdown to 1 segment of the championship series.  The top 10 riders after 11 races battle it out for the title over the season’s final six events.

Rivas isn’t ready to look that far into the future right now.  His focus, obviously, is on winning a race at his home track.

“We really have high expectations for Sonoma,” he said.  “It’s always been a pretty decent track to me.  In my first year I had one of my career-best elapsed times.  I got calls from the guys who are working on the motors at the shop in Americus, Ga., and they are very enthusiastic about some of the numbers they saw on the dyno, so it looks like it could be a very good weekend for us at Sonoma.

“Two years ago, if I remember right, I got into the semifinals there and had a transmission break.  I was up against Gino Scali.  I felt we had everybody covered and it was going to be our event.  But the transmission went from third to sixth gear and the whole thing just blew up when I was out in front. That’s the best we’ve done at Sonoma.”

Maybe that will change Sunday afternoon.

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